Tag: Steve Mnuchin

The United States received a payment of US$ 100 million from Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, the same day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Riyadh to discuss the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a State Department official confirmed Wednesday amid global calls for answers in the case.

Finance ministers and central bankers from the world’s largest economies said on Sunday that heightened trade and geopolitical tensions risk derailing global growth and called for greater dialogue, according to the final communique of a G20 meeting.

United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said there’s no chance of a currency war erupting. When asked whether investors should be concerned about the prospects of one, he said “no,” declining to elaborate during a press conference in Buenos Aires on Sunday.

The United States and China are pulling back from the brink of a trade war after the world's two biggest economies reported progress in talks aimed at bringing down America's massive trade deficit with Beijing. We are putting the trade war on hold, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday.

Beijing has dropped an anti-dumping investigation into imported U.S. sorghum, which it had accused the United States of unfairly subsiding. It has also given approval for a U.S. private equity firm to buy Toshiba's memory chip business. Those gestures could suggest a thaw with the U.S. as trade talks went on in Washington in an atmosphere of hopefulness but hardly assurance of a breakthrough in the impasse.

President Donald Trump will delay imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on the European Union, Mexico and Canada until June 1 as he finalizes deals with them, the White House said in a statement. The administration has reached agreements-in-principle with Argentina, Australia and Brazil, according to the statement, which the White House released late Monday night.

The U.S. dollar extended its recent rout to hit three-year lows on Wednesday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said he welcomed a weakening in the dollar. Fears of protectionist trade policies by the United States had already pushed the greenback to a three-year low, and Mnuchin’s remark at the annual Davos summit of business and political leaders pushed it down further.

The US economy slowed dramatically in the first three months of the year, according to official data. GDP expanded at an annual rate of 0.7% in the first quarter - the slowest rate since the first quarter of 2014, which is unwelcome news for President Donald Trump who, during his election campaign, made a pledge to raise growth to 4%.

President Donald Trump administration on Wednesday presented a sweeping plan to lower tax rates for individuals and businesses, saying it would create the biggest tax cut in United States history. However US markets slid at the close after the Trump administration outlined the tax cut plan and Democrats described it as a handout to the wealthy that would expand the deficit.

Recent tensions between the U.S. and other major economies over trade did not reemerge during Friday’s meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, fueling hopes global policy makers can avert an open dispute with the Trump administration over globalization, top German officials said.